April 16 - Sacramento -  Requiring action by the Speaker of the Assembly, a packed hearing room, and some politicking,  AB 1943 was scheduled heard in the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, and passed on a 7-3 bipartisan vote!

It required a plea to the Speaker of the Assembly, a packed hearing room, and some savvy politicking to get AB 1943 scheduled voted on in the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. The bill passed on a 7-3 bipartisan vote!

Two weeks prior to being heard in committee, the chair of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee, Lou Correa, had offered support for AB 1943. Strangely, a week later, he was calling for its author, Judy Chu, to drop the bill altogether, without any explanation, and removed AB 1943 from the committee's agenda. Only a direct request by the Speaker of the Assembly, Herb Wesson, convinced Correa to place the bill back on the agenda, after hearing that over one hundred supporters planned to travel to Sacramento in support of the bill. It was unknown what influence the Business and Profession's Committee staff member, David Pacheco, who serves on the Board of Directors of Emperors College of Oriental Medicine, had in these events, but the analysis written by the committee staff was inaccurate, misleading, and contained numerous false statements.

However, with 150 acupuncturists arriving from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay, every seat was taken, and there was standing room only for many. The Chair of the Committee, Assembly Member Lou Correa, was generous in allowing a great deal of back and forth discussion, and cross-examination of witnesses. The impression was that he considered the bill dead in committee (lacking votes), so could be generous in this regard. The Chair himself ultimately voted against the bill, claim some very weak and imaginative arguments that it conflicted with the Acupuncture Board review process of the Joint Legislative Review Committee, on which he served as a member.

The Bill's author, Assembly Member Judy Chu, had made some amendments prior to the Committee hearing, addressing the issues presented by the California Medical Association, the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM), the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM), and the Alliance for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (the Alliance), and Assemble Member Correa.

In spite of the compromise amendments, Jack Miller, Vice President of the CCAOM, and owner of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, continued to oppose the bill, claiming that the schools should be allowed to continue their "experimentation" with education for the profession. Lixing Huang, Secretary of the CCAOM and President of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, opposed the bill, pleading for the schools to just be allowed "to do our agenda."  Tom Haines, administrator of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, and Board member of the Alliance and Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, voiced the Alliance's opposition because AB 1943 would only serve the profession's "political agenda" (to improve itself). Even Steven Given, Executive Committee member of the CCAOM, and representative of Bastyr University, could not let go, and presented some very weak arguments in opposition the bill.

At first, the bill did not look like it would move, but then it got a motion and a second, and more compromise language was worked out, and the bill passed out of committee on a 7-4 vote.